Title: ARPA-E Impacts: A Sampling of Project Outcomes, Volume II

Abstract

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is demonstrating that a collaborative model has the power to deliver real value. The Agency’s first compilation booklet of impact sheets, published in 2016, began to tell the story of how ARPA-E has already made an impact in just seven years—funding a diverse and sophisticated research portfolio on advanced energy technologies that enable the United States to tackle our most pressing energy challenges. One year later our research investments continue to pay off, with a number of current and alumni project teams successfully commercializing their technologies and advancing the state of the art in transformative areas of energy science and engineering. There is no single measure that can fully illustrate ARPA-E’s success to date, but several statistics viewed collectively begin to reveal the Agency’s impact. Since 2009, ARPA-E has provided more than $1.5 billion in funding for 36 focused programs and three open funding solicitations, totaling over 580 projects. Of those, 263 are now alumni projects. Many teams have successfully leveraged ARPA-E’s investment: 56 have formed new companies, 68 have partnered with other government agencies to continue their technology development, and 74 teams have together raised more than $1.8 billion in reported funding frommore » the private sector to bring their technologies to market. However, even when viewed together, those measures do not capture ARPA-E’s full impact. To best understand the Agency’s success, the specific scientific and engineering challenges that ARPA-E project teams have overcome must be understood. This booklet provides concrete examples of those successes, ranging from innovations that will bear fruit in the future to ones that are beginning to penetrate the market as products today. Importantly, half of the projects highlighted in this volume stem from OPEN solicitations, which the agency has run in 2009, 2012, and 2015. ARPA-E’s OPEN programs are an extraordinary opportunity for the R&D community to challenge ARPA-E in areas of technology not covered by the agency’s focused technology programs.« less

@article{osti_1346817,
title = {ARPA-E Impacts: A Sampling of Project Outcomes, Volume II},
author = {Rohlfing, Eric},
abstractNote = {The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is demonstrating that a collaborative model has the power to deliver real value. The Agency’s first compilation booklet of impact sheets, published in 2016, began to tell the story of how ARPA-E has already made an impact in just seven years—funding a diverse and sophisticated research portfolio on advanced energy technologies that enable the United States to tackle our most pressing energy challenges. One year later our research investments continue to pay off, with a number of current and alumni project teams successfully commercializing their technologies and advancing the state of the art in transformative areas of energy science and engineering. There is no single measure that can fully illustrate ARPA-E’s success to date, but several statistics viewed collectively begin to reveal the Agency’s impact. Since 2009, ARPA-E has provided more than $1.5 billion in funding for 36 focused programs and three open funding solicitations, totaling over 580 projects. Of those, 263 are now alumni projects. Many teams have successfully leveraged ARPA-E’s investment: 56 have formed new companies, 68 have partnered with other government agencies to continue their technology development, and 74 teams have together raised more than $1.8 billion in reported funding from the private sector to bring their technologies to market. However, even when viewed together, those measures do not capture ARPA-E’s full impact. To best understand the Agency’s success, the specific scientific and engineering challenges that ARPA-E project teams have overcome must be understood. This booklet provides concrete examples of those successes, ranging from innovations that will bear fruit in the future to ones that are beginning to penetrate the market as products today. Importantly, half of the projects highlighted in this volume stem from OPEN solicitations, which the agency has run in 2009, 2012, and 2015. ARPA-E’s OPEN programs are an extraordinary opportunity for the R&D community to challenge ARPA-E in areas of technology not covered by the agency’s focused technology programs.},
doi = {10.2172/1346817},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Mon Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

This assessment concentrates on the manufacturing and use phases of the total materials cycle. The manufacturing and use phases are the phases of the cycle primarily concerned with materials utilization and where there exists a high potential for conservation. In order to examine a broad array of possibilities, the impacts of conservation policies on product sales, employment, and materials consumption have been investigated for the following material and product categories: copper and aluminum in refrigerators, automobiles, and shipping containers. This report presents the results of that investigation.

Probable changes in the mix of materials used to manufacture automobiles were examined to determine if economic or technical problems in recycling could arise such that the 'abandoned automobile problem' would be resurrected. Future trends in materials composition of the automobile were quantified, and possible constraints related to material characteristics, availability, and price were examined. The automobile resource recovery industry was studied in terms of economic incentives for recycling and technical obstacles to recycling of deregistered automobiles. A macro-model of the economy, the EPA sponsored SEAS model, was used to study overall economic and environmental effects and to bring tomore » light any secondary effects that might be important. Appendices covering the following are presented subjects: (1) future material composition in automobiles; (2) projections of automobile sales by weight class; (3) automotive use of plastics and recycling possibilities; (4) safety aspects of materials substitution; and (5) energy consequences.« less

Volume 2 consists of Appendices A-E: the alternative of converting to coal-water or coal-fuel oils mixtures; the identification of the coal supply region; analysis of the transportation networks region; air quality modelling; and acid deposition analysis. (LTN)